Alexander II Depth Studies
Theme: Nature of Government How liberal was the Russian government from 1855 to 1881?
Two points of view: Alexander did make the Russian government more liberal and Alexander
did not make the government more liberal.
Evidence to support that Alexander did make the Russian government more liberal:
- Alexander demonstrated that he was occasionally willing to listen to advice in regard
to making the Russian government more liberal, the example of this is the change of
‘The Personal Chancellery of his Imperial Majesty’ to the ‘Council of Ministers.’
- The introduction of the Zemstvo could be viewed as a somewhat liberal reform ->
‘democratic’ voting system (meaning that there, theoretically, would be a diverse
representation of all areas of Russian society,) which did much good for areas of
education and healthcare.
- The Zemstvo was allowed to raise small taxes to pay for the development of public
amenities such as roads.
- The Urban equivalent of the Zemstvo (city Duma) was introduced in 1870.
- Alexander was considering organising a constituent assembly before his
assassination.
- The emancipation edict genuinely liberated the peasants - the emancipation edict
granted peasants the rights to: get married, own land, own business. Made Western
countries think the government of Russia was more liberal.
- The Emancipation was deemed successful since the land and liberty/ the populists
‘going to the people’ movement failed to take hold of the peasantry on multiple
occasions (1874, 1876 and 1878.)
- The Land and Liberty movement was fairly limited, at its formation in 1876 it only had
200 members.
- Reforms to judiciary helped to reform some of the corruption in law enforcement,
some of these reforms included: giving judges better pay, the abolition of corporal
punishment, the right to trial by jury, creation of hierarchical courts which entitled
offenders to a fairer trial - for example the trial of Vera Zasulich.)
- Reforms to education and censorship made the Russian government appear more
liberal -> the liberalisation of universities and introduction of glasnost meant that an
intelligentsia developed. Russian society was more highly educated, between 1856
and 1880 15,000 new primary schools were built and in this same period school
attendees increased by 600,000. Or could use statistic between 1855 and 1865
number of primary school attendees doubled. In 1864 Alexander issued the
‘education edict.’
- Military reforms also helped to liberalise the Russian government -> military service
was reduced to 15 years, military schools were introduced to help educate the
majority peasant class who served in the army, officer training was radically
improved.
Evidence to support that Alexander did not make the Russian government more liberal:
- The Zemstvo was not democratic -> it was a necessary reform to facilitate the
emancipation edict; voting was not democratic - disproportionately represented the
church and the nobility whereas the votes of peasants were done through electoral
colleges; the zemstvo aided in distracting reformists from areas of the government
that required genuine reform.
Theme: Nature of Government How liberal was the Russian government from 1855 to 1881?
Two points of view: Alexander did make the Russian government more liberal and Alexander
did not make the government more liberal.
Evidence to support that Alexander did make the Russian government more liberal:
- Alexander demonstrated that he was occasionally willing to listen to advice in regard
to making the Russian government more liberal, the example of this is the change of
‘The Personal Chancellery of his Imperial Majesty’ to the ‘Council of Ministers.’
- The introduction of the Zemstvo could be viewed as a somewhat liberal reform ->
‘democratic’ voting system (meaning that there, theoretically, would be a diverse
representation of all areas of Russian society,) which did much good for areas of
education and healthcare.
- The Zemstvo was allowed to raise small taxes to pay for the development of public
amenities such as roads.
- The Urban equivalent of the Zemstvo (city Duma) was introduced in 1870.
- Alexander was considering organising a constituent assembly before his
assassination.
- The emancipation edict genuinely liberated the peasants - the emancipation edict
granted peasants the rights to: get married, own land, own business. Made Western
countries think the government of Russia was more liberal.
- The Emancipation was deemed successful since the land and liberty/ the populists
‘going to the people’ movement failed to take hold of the peasantry on multiple
occasions (1874, 1876 and 1878.)
- The Land and Liberty movement was fairly limited, at its formation in 1876 it only had
200 members.
- Reforms to judiciary helped to reform some of the corruption in law enforcement,
some of these reforms included: giving judges better pay, the abolition of corporal
punishment, the right to trial by jury, creation of hierarchical courts which entitled
offenders to a fairer trial - for example the trial of Vera Zasulich.)
- Reforms to education and censorship made the Russian government appear more
liberal -> the liberalisation of universities and introduction of glasnost meant that an
intelligentsia developed. Russian society was more highly educated, between 1856
and 1880 15,000 new primary schools were built and in this same period school
attendees increased by 600,000. Or could use statistic between 1855 and 1865
number of primary school attendees doubled. In 1864 Alexander issued the
‘education edict.’
- Military reforms also helped to liberalise the Russian government -> military service
was reduced to 15 years, military schools were introduced to help educate the
majority peasant class who served in the army, officer training was radically
improved.
Evidence to support that Alexander did not make the Russian government more liberal:
- The Zemstvo was not democratic -> it was a necessary reform to facilitate the
emancipation edict; voting was not democratic - disproportionately represented the
church and the nobility whereas the votes of peasants were done through electoral
colleges; the zemstvo aided in distracting reformists from areas of the government
that required genuine reform.
